Crowning Performance

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The Queen’s visit to Ireland, the first by a British monarch for a century, has been an unqualified success. This success is, of course, the product of careful diplomatic choreography. Yet the crucial role played by the main actor is hard to overstate. The diplomatic, dramatic and — not that she would welcome the phrase — interpersonal skills of Elizabeth Windsor are formidable indeed. Now in her 60th year in the job, the Queen is in a class of her own.

Every part of the trip showed this clearly, but nowhere was it more evident than in the speech that she gave